In Diplomacy Does ‘No’ Mean ‘Maybe’?

British Vice Consul Suspended and Under Investigation for Inappropriate Relationship with Kerobokan Prison Inmate

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(5/12/2014)

A junior British diplomat in Bali is being investigated over her relationship with Briton jailed for drugs. The U.K. Press is covering the developing scandal allegedly involving a British diplomat based in Bali and a notorious prisoner housed at Bali’s for narcotics crimes.

According to the independent.co.uk, the British Foreign Office has confirmed it is investigating reports of an improper relationship between a 30-year-old female diplomat assigned to Bali and the convicted drug king-pin Julian Ponder serving a six-year sentence in the prison.

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Vice-consul Alys Harahap, who is married to an Indonesian national, was reportedly caught by prison officials while passionately embracing Ponder during one of her regular visits to the prison.

Harahap has been placed on suspension by The Foreign Office while an investigation is carried out in regards to charges of inappropriate behavior and the violation of prison rules.

Harahap intimate’s embrace reportedly occurred with Poder (44) who is linked to the Lindsay Sandiford case - the English grandmother sentenced to death for smuggling cocaine into Bali in 2013.

Ponder’s relationship with Harahap is alleged to date back for a number of months and included times when the two were left alone together in the prison’s clinic and the prison governor’s office.

The former honorary consul in Bali, Mark Wilson, now retired, told the press: “I can only hope this is a misunderstanding and that Alys was giving this prisoner a hug to say, ‘take care of yourself’. It may have been something entirely innocent that has been misinterpreted.”

Harahap is married with two daughters. She studied Indonesian at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and is a recent recruit to the Foreign Service.

The prison governor, Farid Junaedi, while welcoming the official enquiry, claims no formal complaint has been made in the matter. “I am not concerned with the relationship between them [Ponder and Ms Harahap]. It is not our business. I am only concerned with Ponder’s behavior in prison,” he added.